Reality Checks
by SimplexityJane
Summary: She didn't mean the humans. She didn't even know humans could be pack, or that Stiles would be the one who'd step in between Derek and a trigger happy hunter. Bittersweet ending, no one actually dies. Based on what we've seen of tomorrow's episode.


**Plot bunny that bit me in the rear when I saw what I hope isn't Stiles shot on the ground. **

* * *

Allison doesn't know what she expected when she said to kill them all, but it wasn't this. Stiles is bleeding on the floor, a shot to the shoulder from a bullet (_oh god he's human, he can't heal, don't they know he can't heal_), and now Mrs. McCall is standing in front of Derek, Mr. Stilinski focused on helping his son with the shock.

"What are you doing, Allison?" she asks, and her voice doesn't even shake, even though Allison is holding a gun. Matt is dead on the floor, killed by Jackson of all people _(he didn't kill me, he killed other people but he didn't kill me, doesn't he deserve to die_), and Melissa doesn't bother looking at him. Her son is somewhere in the building, helping the rest of the pack deal with what's happened. The hunters she's controlling, told to kill them for trying to protect the closest thing to a parent they have.

"He killed my mother," she whispers. She _is_ shaking, a full-bodied tremor, but the gun hasn't strayed from where it's pointed (_he's staring at me like I'm the monster, like he doesn't know what I'm doing, what sort of wolf is that_).

"No he didn't, Allison," Melissa says, looking her straight in the eyes. There's a gun aimed at her forehead, which Allison shoos away because Melissa McCall can be dealt with without lethal force (_I'm not screaming now, Mom, Kate, are you proud wherever the hell you are_). "Your mother killed herself. Everything she did to herself was her choice, not Derek Hale's."

"He _bit_ her!" she shouts. "He knew what would happen if he bit her and he _did it anyway_. That's _murder_, and I hunt what hunts me."

"No." Derek opens his mouth and shakes his head, says no like he's disgusted, like it's being spit out of his mouth. "I was saving your boyfriend's life, I did _not_ bite your mother. I would have let your father deal with her _code-breaking_."

"You're lying!" she shouts. "She turned before she died, there aren't any other Alphas here, so obviously you bit her." (_you can't believe anything a monster says_). And he looks sad, god damn him, he doesn't get to feel anything after he caused this.

"There is. Lydia Martin was possessed by one, before she forced him into his body. She's recovering right now, sleeping it off, but she remembers everything. Peter Hale possessed her because she was immune, but that didn't mean she couldn't pass it on with him in her body."

She can feel her mouth curl in disgust, because there are no such things as ghosts.

"He's not lying," a small voice says, and Allison turns towards its owner. Lydia looks wrecked, tears pouring out of her eyes. Her feet are bare and she's wearing pajamas, like some kid at a sleepover. "H-he took control of my body. I didn't know- I didn't know what he wanted. He showed me things, images, of what he would do to me if I didn't let him take control, which was stupid I know, and I spent the last three days screaming at all of you and none of you heard a word." Her smile turns bitter. "Except Jackson, and he was being controlled. So you can't kill Derek, because this is my fault. And you can't kill me because-" (_what are you doing, Lydia, these are hunters, if they know what you are they'll shoot first and never ask questions_) "I... can't die. I tried, ten minutes ago. Swallowed twenty of my mom's sleeping pills. I could feel them. Right here." She presses her chest. "Slowing, but then-" Her eyes widen. "You all have to get out of here." She steps past the hunters, past Melissa and Derek, and presses a hand to Stiles's shoulder.

When she disappears into thin air, even the torn shirt is fixed. Stiles takes gasping breaths as he rises, staring at Allison like he can't believe what she's doing, and then breathes in deep and places a hand on Derek's shoulder.

"I believe Lydia and Derek. And if you try to kill him, you have to get through me." (_we nearly just did, Stiles, you idiot_). "But not right now, because Peter Hale is about to show up and try to kill you. And possibly us, but there are a lot more of you."

The hunters are looking to her for guidance, and it's bitter in her mouth. The interactions with Gerard and her father make much more sense now, (_your father loves the code, but he can't let one of them near you, you know that, right Allison? if anything happened to you he'd kill himself and I'd kill everyone else_).

"Regroup at the house," she says. "Inform my father that my mother's murderer is the same as my aunt's, and that none of you are to go near the Hale pack, other than Peter, and then in groups of no less than five." The hunters file away, and she's left in the room with the Alpha of her ex-boyfriend's pack and the humans who have stood to help him. But she can't worry about them. She has to focus on Derek. "You haven't killed anyone. If any of your pack harms any human, even the ones allied with you, I will hold you responsible."

Mr. Stilinski is staring at her now. She can't be bothered with that. He'll understand when Stiles explains it to him, why the hunters exist.

Derek is halfway shifted, but she doesn't expect anything less.

"And if you harm one of my pack without reason, I have every right to exact my own justice." His voice rings with what she figures are shifted vocal chords, halfway wolf. "It's the same code our families followed for years."

She accepts his terms.

When she's in her house again, it's pandemonium. Gerard is yelling and her father looks absolutely terrified, and she really doesn't know what possesses her to do what she does, but in the next few seconds she takes her own grandfather down with the same move she used on Matt.

"You are not in charge, Gerard," she says, and every part of her hates it. She wants to curl up in her father's arms and scream, in fear, in anger, she's not sure. But there are no other Argent women (_I'm an interloper, Allison, a Turner, not an Argent, and your grandmother died fifteen years ago_), and if the family really is run by women this can't be a new experience for him. "And if you try to start another war when neither side has drawn a blade I will make sure you remember that."

"Allison," her dad says, and she turns to him, steeled for anything. "What's going on?" Everyone is looking to her for answers and she wants to scream at them that she doesn't know anything more than they do, but she does, and it's her job to lead these people. She just told them that with her treatment of Gerard, who is rising but making no move, watching her like she's someone else. She doesn't address her father, she addresses them.

"There are two Alphas in Beacon Hills." The hunters start to murmur, the same history she's only started studying flying through their heads. "Do not panic," and she puts steel in her voice. "One is not a threat to us. He's allied with the humans of the town and won't allow harm to come to them, even if they aren't his pack. The other is the scariest thing you'll ever see, and that includes me pmsing." There's a relieved chuckle, she can do this. "His name is Peter Hale, and until recently we believed him deceased. It was _pure luck_ that we killed him the first time, along with a temporary alliance with the Hale pack. He is insane, he is intelligent, and he blames everyone in this room for a crime my aunt committed six years ago. He does not have any humanity left. If you encounter him and you're alone, don't approach him. We'll get photos out after this.

"I don't know how he came back to life, and I don't care. The only thing that matters is that his second life is the shortest one." (_I won't be Kate, I won't be you, Mom, I'm sorry, but I can't._). "He is the only priority. When he's dead, no hunter is to go near the Hales unless they think one of them has harmed a human. _No_ hunter."

"If the only reason he's dead is because of a temporary alliance, shouldn't we be trying for the same thing?" one of the more liberal hunters asks. He's not that much older than her, to be honest.

"No. Tonight's mistake dissolved any trust the Hale Alpha might have had for me, if there was any to begin with. He won't work with us."

"Make sure you're wearing your ash amulets," Gerard says. "We'll decide on a plan of attack tomorrow, when the blood lust isn't so thick." They don't leave until Allison nods her approval, and soon she's alone with Gerard and her father. She glares at Gerard pointedly and he chuckles. "Don't worry, you were right. I was overstepping my boundaries."

"No, you were taking control because I wouldn't. I'm guessing Kate didn't want to, either. She wanted to be one of the boys. I don't." Turning to her dad she adds, "I don't know how we're supposed to deal with two Alphas. Derek shouldn't be a problem- Dad, don't." He looks angry. "He isn't Peter. The people he's turning aren't going crazy, other than being terrified of us even though we should be following the code. The first thing we're going to be doing about Derek is getting out of his house."

"Peter Hale isn't going to be easy to beat a second time."

"He'll go after Derek." She raises an eyebrow. "Our hunters won't go on their land, but it doesn't mean they can't patrol." Gerard actually smiles at that. "And if anything happens, we're only a few minutes away. The werewolves can keep him preoccupied that long."

(What she doesn't tell them: she still loves Scott. She can't stop loving him, even though now she can't be with him ever again. She cries for an hour into her pillow, which isn't even her pillow, for him, and when he vaults into the room she doesn't kick him out.

"I can't be with you," she says into her pillow. "I'm an Argent, and the only woman in line. If I'm with you Gerard will come for all of you; no one will be able to stop him."

"I know, I just... came here to say goodbye. Can- will you look at me?"

She does, taking in Scott's appearance. He's been crying, probably had his mom crying on him too, and she can watch the way the puffiness disappears in his eyes as they stare at each other.

"It's the only way this doesn't end with us dead," she says before he's kissing her, long and scarily good. She only kisses back for a minute, then detaches herself before they get any ideas. "Promise me you'll find someone who isn't a hunter's daughter. Have the insane amount of kids you know you want and forget all about me."

"You know I can't do that." He takes her hand and she has to force herself not to give in. "You know why."

"You're more human than wolf, you can have more than one mate. Now you need to leave."

She doesn't explain the rings around her eyes before she goes to school, but she doesn't have to.)


End file.
